Using Technology to Improve Student Achievement

I enjoyed this article, but this didn't speak any truths I didn't already know about technology and the importance of including it in educational goals. This article stressed the importance of technology as a tool for improving student achievement. Due to the positive correlation of student achievement and technology, you would think that NCLB and the high stakes testing would be technologized. For example, more accurate, expedient results would eb able to be given to all stakeholders involved in high stakes testing and we could do away with the price of environmental efforts due to the paper tests.

Does it Compute? The Relationship Between Educational Technology and Student Achievement in Mathematics

This website discusses how technology can influence student academic performance, how technology can improve student motivation, attitude, and interest in learning, how technology can prepare students for the workforce, and what strategies result in effective instructional applications of technology. Technology can influence student academic performance only when the application directly supports the curriculum objectives being assessed. The technological application also has to provide opportunities for collaboration with other students, it has to adjust for student ability, prior knowledge or experience, and provides feedback to the student and teacher on performance. Technology also has to be integrated into the instruction on a daily basis, must provide opportunities for students to design and implement projects that extend the curriculuim content, and when used in environments where teachers, the school community, and school and district administrators support the use of technology. Technology improves student motivation, attitude, and interest in learning when students use computer applications that adjust problems and tasks to maximize the students' experience of success. It improves motivation also when students use applications to produce, demonstrate, and share their work with their peers, teachers, and parents. Motivation is also encouraged when students use challenging, game-like programs and applications to develop basic skills and knowledge. Technology helps prepare students for the workforce when they learn to use and apply applications used in the world of work. In addition, students are prepared for the workforce technologically when they are provided information regarding the use and benefit of technology and telecommunications for the workplace. Strategies that result in effective instructional application of technology are systematically incorporating it into classroom level instruction and unit plans and lesson plans that describe how available hardware, networks, and content application will be used to carry out objectives, systematically incorporating it into school plans that describe very specific ways that technology is integral to curriculum, instruction, and school administration, and systematically incorporating it into instructional planning that includes technology and curriculum and teaching strategies that are matched to the learner's needs. I thought this was a very informative website and enlightened me on the importance of the systematic integration of technology into everyday life of school and learning. I didn't notice any cons on the integration of technology which was a disappointment, but overall very informative and interesting website.

Helping Your Child Reach the New Standards in Math, Science, and Technology

This is a guide for New Jersey parents with the goal of "enabling New Jersey's children to aquire the math, science, and technology skills and understandings they will need to be successful in their careers and productive as citizens". It encourages real-world problem-solving while students and parents have fun doing it. This guide explains to parents what the standards are, why standards are needed, what the changes that will happen in the classroom are and explains what children will be learning in math, science, and technology among other things. If parents actually read the guide or are guided through it to explain the ramifications of the changes, or the parents are allowed to observe the changes in action, I think this will work well. I think there are always good ideas, but if parents may not be able to comprehend the changes or don't fully understand the changes, there can be agendas that are separate and distinct and can be conflicting. If this is the case, this will not benefit the students at all. Other than that, very good ideas, but I'm worried about the follow through and the results of the orientation.

Lead, Don't Lecture

This article discusses constructivist strategies to learning. It gives examples of teachers and how they foster learning by doing and experiencing rather than being lectured to. Students are encouraged to make sense and their own meaning of things. Teachers in this article also coach the students and teach them how to coach each other. I really enjoyed this article because I have considered home schooling my own children and this article inspires me to follow through. Also, when students enter the world during and out of high school, doing and experiencing is the way learning is retained and able to be applied to different situations which is most important, because the application conveys understanding.

Mapping a Path for the 3D Web Week 5

This article discussed the upward and momentous movement of the 3D Web concept. It also gave an example of 3D croquet and the implications of the possibilities of 3D Web. It was kind of hard for me to visualize this as a useful tool, because I learn by interaction and doing rather than reading about events, I think this article was a little more than I could fully grasp without being there, as was most of the technology that I work with and encounter on a daily basis. I enjoyed this article and think that this innovation will benefit our students tremendously, because it reminds me of the oo7 game out, that my children play on Playstation 2 and the XBox and beat me terribly at. Children should catch on easily.

Standards for Math, Science and Technology Education Class 3

This article discusses the definition of what a standard is, the evolution of standards, the uses of content standards, and standards for teaching, assessment and professional development. It interestingly talks about how math, and science education and standards changed when Russia launched Sputnik, and the US had to have competing standards for their students or deal with falling into mediocrity. Eventually, nationally accredited organizations began to take on the belief that standards were progressive and can be used to measure achievement. I feel standards are a necessary element to education, because you have to gage what will be learned and this has to be assessed. The question is, who determines standards, what is their agenda, and how do they determine if standards are of interest to all ethinicities and types of students especially when it comes to social studies standards?

Constructivism week 2

This reading discussed constructivism, and its characteristics. Some important characteristics include students engaging in activities and experiences that help them better understand concepts and ways to apply what they learn to their lives. I really enjoyed this reading and it reminds me a lot of my classroom, because I try and have them apply theory and hstory to real-life experiences.

What is a Webquest? week 2

This class reading explained exactly what a webquest is, the uses for and ways in which a webquest can be used successfully in a classroom. I would probably use the webquest in Economics in order to create a simulation for stock market transactions, and incorporating microsoft excel to keep track of the chosen stocks as exemplified in the Stock Market Simulation http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/stockmg.htm. It would be most effective for my classroom in the long-term which is about four weeks.